Reading
"Passion" by Mike McKinley:
I was recommended this book by one of the leaders in Berea
at Maidwell 1, Pete Matthew and nearly a year later I really felt that my walk
with Christ needed a kick up the butt so I pulled it off my rather extensive
book shelf and began reading it on the train home. It has really helped to pull
me up already (when writing this I've only read the first chapter) and I wanted
to share it! So I decided to write this as I go along and almost openly discuss
how it's shaping my faith and my personal reactions to the book whilst they are
fresh and true.
I knew straight away on reading the dedications that it was
a Christian hearted book because he asks for the book to shape a select group
of people's hearts. This is what any Christian would want and straight away I
felt encouraged to make a difference in myself and then pass this book onto
someone else.
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| Only £5.03: https://www.thegoodbook.co.uk/passion |
Introduction:
In the introduction the author talks about our attitudes
towards Jesus death and how it affects our lives using a football ticket
analogy. We can treat the cross like a
ticket to and even football game that we are carrying around in our pocket.
We're really excited about it, but we won't need it until we get to the
stadium. I know I often think like this and it's an easy trap to fall into
but later on the author discusses how we are to live for Christ through our
whole time on earth to reflect his graciousness to others in the world who do
not understand what the cross means for us. He finishes the introduction talking
about how amazed Christians are by this and how we will never fully understand
God's plan but we are not supposed to, because we are not God. Finally he
finishes with one of my favourite verses in the bible; to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. (Philippians 1 v 21)
We will gain so much when we die, eternal life and a perfect relationship with
God, however, what Christ wants is for us to live out a life for him and tell
the world the great news!
At the back of this book there is an eight day reading plan
to allow time for reflection and meditation on what you have read and really
think through the impact on our lives, I have decided to follow this plan and
see how it goes.
Chapter one The Cup:
He begins with a chapter called The Cup, it focuses specifically on Luke 22 v 39-41 where Jesus
goes up the Mount of Olives to pray, leaving the disciples and little while
away so that he can be alone with His Father. Mike shows us how we relate to
the disciples in this chapter with our misplaced priorities, the disciples are
supposed to be praying that they would not fall into temptation (v40) however
instead they fall asleep, and as the author says, when life is overwhelming, I often find it easier to sleep than to pray.
It would seem that when the disciples fall asleep Jesus realises that He will go through is completely alone.
Christians often talk about Jesus taking The Cup, but I've never really
understood it, until now. Going back to the Old Testament in Jeremiah "Take from my hand this cup filled with
the wine of my wrath" The Cup in a nutshell is a symbol of God's perfect and holy hatred for sin. We all
deserve God's wrath and that cup fits us all perfectly. Reading over the
passage again that this chapter is based upon Jesus anguish and pain I had to
just stop and think. In the sub-section entitled The First Sip the author makes you look deeply at what Jesus is
going through Just the taste, just the
anticipation of that wrath was enough to make Jesus fall to the ground and
sweat drops like blood, how much worse was His actual experience at His
crucifixion the next day? I had to take a moment at this point and
seriously think, think of my most painful experience and times that by a
billion and it wouldn't even be close, that is just horrible, but it's not even
the half of it. Thinking about the fact that Jesus didn't just leave and run
away but he walked closer to the city where he was going to be killed. That is
true obedience and as the author quite rightly says, and actually this was my
first big kick-up-the-butt moment; the
point is that you and I should realise we are not like Jesus, that we don't
love and forgive and trust and obey the way that we should. We don't need an
inspiring example we need a saving substitute. That for many Christians is
a huge shock factor, the realisation that we are not to try to be Jesus, but we
are to accept his substitution. That doesn't mean to say that we should just do
what we want for the rest of our lives and use it as a Get Out Of Jail Free Card, but we mustn't think any of our saving
is our own doing. It is all down to Jesus. We just live to show people how much
of a saving gracious God we have.
Well look at Jesus on
the Mount of Olives, saying to the Father: I will take the cup. He took it for you. he loved you so much
that he did that for you. You are loved, by the only One in the universe whose
love matters eternally. He loves you!
The reflective questions hit me quite hard, they make you
dig quite deep and go into yourself personally. This is what we need to do to
make our faith true through and through to really begin to change. It asked me
to be really honest with myself and say where I have gone wrong repeatedly and
ask for help to change ourselves because we cannot do it alone. The one
question that hit me really hard was “When
and why do you feel unworthy of love?” As someone with depression you can
quickly feel very alone and lost and therefore unloved. Actually as a Christian
I don't need to feel that way at all! Jesus loves me unconditionally and I am
never without him. That is an amazing fact and I've decided I'm going to put
something on the inside of my wallet so that everything I am out and about I
know he is there and he loves me! Actually I'm going to put little notes
everywhere for myself as a motivation to get out of bed and go show the world
how amazing Jesus love is!
